Emanuel, Clinton Reunite At Jobs Conference

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and former President Bill Clinton on stage at the Clinton Global Initiative's jobs conference at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers on June 29, 2011. (Credit: CBS)

CHICAGO (WBBM) — Mayor Rahm Emanuel appeared at a Chicago-hosted jobs conference on Wednesday with his old boss, former President Bill Clinton, and said Chicago has 120,000 job openings right now, but unemployment stands at 9 percent.

Emanuel worked in the Clinton White House and Bill Clinton has only glowing words for his former adviser.

“I predict to you that his tenure as mayor of Chicago will be one of the most brilliant chapters in this city’s long and storied history,” Clinton said at the Clinton Global Initiative conference at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers along the Chicago River.

“There’s 120,000 job openings in the city of Chicago, and yet I have a 9 percent unemployment. Those two facts should not go together, and yet they’re sitting side-by-side,” Emanuel added. “Am I getting the best for my job training, my community colleges, to make sure I have a trained work force for those job openings?”

The conference runs through Thursday evening, with Clinton and U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner giving the closing remarks.

Steve Miller is an investigative reporter and has been with Newsradio for more than two decades. He grew up in South Texas and received his undergraduate degree in Liberal Arts at the University of Texas in Austin. After graduation, he moved to...